News

WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- Fatty breasts versus dense breasts: is having one better than the other? Women with dense breasts are considered at higher risk for developing breast cancer.

But it was also believed their prospects for a recurrence, even death, was poor. But a new study offers some surprising results for women in both categories.

A majority of women have dense breast. The term has nothing to do with breast size, shape or firmness. It's just about the type of tissue that makes up the breast.On a mammogram dense tissue shows up white, but so does cancer making it much harder to detect.

"We depend on high quality mammography & positioning to separate out the structures...In fatty breasts it's like looking through a clear brook and that makes finding those spots more readily," said Dr. Rebecca Zuurbier, Director of Breast Imaging at Sibley Hospital.